Reader Questions & Answers on Kombucha

I first met Hannah of Kombucha Kamp a year ago when I spoke at a fermentation festival in California. Since that time, I’ve been astounded by Hannah’s knowledge of kombucha coupled with her relaxed and authentic attitude toward real food. When I have a question about kombucha, I invariably turn to Hannah for her expertise. So when I invited you to email your questions on kombucha into Nourished Kitchen, I was grateful that Hannah offered to lend her knowledge in answering them.

In this interview, we discuss kombucha brewing techniques, history, benefits and answer simple (but common) questions like, “Can I still drink kombucha when pregnant?” or “Do I have to use black tea and white sugar in my kombucha?”

upcoming reader Q & As

Our upcoming question and answer sessions will focus on mother-to-mother milk sharing and wild-caught seafood choices. Plus I’ll be speaking with Sandor Katz of the Art of Fermentation and Wild Fermentation on Monday, send your questions to questions@nourishedkitchen.com for inclusion.

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About Jenny

Jenny McGruther is a wife, mother and cooking instructor specializing in real and traditional foods. You can find her first book, The Nourished Kitchen features more than 160 wholesome, traditional foods recipes.

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Reader Interactions

What people are saying

My kombucha has been coming out beautifully. I’m ready to graduate to a gallon container to up the production. I can’t wait until my current batch is done with the second fermentation with tons of ginger. It is going to be like spicy spicy ginger beer!

Hi Jenny!
Thank you so much for posting this interview with Hannah. The information she shared is so good. I didn’t realize kombucha was in many ways so versatile. My only experience with kombucha was a couple of years ago with my very first batch. I had started it with a culture that came dry and followed the instructions. Anyway at the end of the prescribed time the culture looked like it had mold on it. So I threw everything away and resigned myself to never try it again. However, watching your interview of Hannah I have decided to give it another shot. This time I think I understand more about it than before.
So thank you so much for bringing your readers such great information about foods/beverages that are real and good for us.
Gloria 🙂

I had no luck with dehydrated SCOBYs, and I tried twice. I got mold both times, and my theory is that they were not sufficiently rehydrated to handle the quantity of kombucha I was trying to make (despite following the rehydration instructions to a t). I bought another SCOBY that came with starter liquid and have had no trouble since.

This is interesting and timely. I just had a friend phone me yesterday to warn me against my kombucha making.
Setting that aside I have high pressures in my eyes. One of the things I am to avoid is caffeine. Does the caffeine remain present in the finished product. This is a big and important question for me because I am not willing to risk blindness for my kombucha indulgence. I do have an appt in July to have my pressures checked, but that is still a while from now. Thank you for posting this interview.

Fantastic timing! I’m brewing for the first time and have been keeping a diary on my blog about my experiences. I hope it’s ok to link to this video, it’s great and very helpful!! It has answered so many questions I’ve been wondering about.

If I have Kombucha that is done with it’s cycle and I want to save that top mother, can I dehydrate it to sprinkle for use later? I don’t want to just throw it away and I’m afraid to kill it in the Excalibur.

I just started a culture with the dehydrated scoby. I did Hannah’s Kombucha boot camp so I am looking forward to experimenting. Thank you so much for the education you provide I am really learning a lot.

about other uses for kombucha – you can use it instead of kvass to make okroshka, a cold Russian soup; my gran actually most often made it with kombucha (or ‘tea mushroom’, as we call it :-)), or kefir.

Thanks for the video. I also appreciate the link(in the comments) to directions for de-caffeinating. I gave up caffeine entirely over a year ago but I do still use regular tea in my booch, figuring it has been reduced enough to be o.k. for me. I would like to try the caffeine reducing method to see if I notice any positive differences.
I mix my flavored or plain kombucha with a little wine and serve over ice to make a cooler… yummy, refreshing and relaxing!

one of my favorite things to do is share your website. something good is
always brewing..thank you so much jenny. this is amazingly helpful information.
something our own grandparents shared with one another daily.

I just made my first batch of Kombucha! When I went to remove and split my scoby it started to rip and fall apart. I threw out the part that ripped off and just put the rest of it in for my next batch. I have a friend that wants to start a batch and I promised her my next scoby. Is there a better way to try to separate it?

Great video! Thank you. My 6-year old loves Kombucha! I let it ferment for two to three weeks. I haven’t tried flavoring it yet. I make it by batch but would love to try the continuous method. I’ve met Hannah and have tasted her flavored Kombucha. It’s delicious!

This was a lovely video and it answered so many of my questions! You both are so knowledgable. I did have one question that I haven’t heard asked much. How do you know when to separate the scoby in a continuous brew? I have a continuous brew going and I am on batch #2. My scoby is large and I think there are a couple babies on the bottom. Should I just let it grow big? Or should I start a scoby hotel and keep the scoby in the continous brew a newer scoby? Thanks!

My scobies do not look healthy. They have bubbles and lumpy areas, thin and thick, dark spots and lots of fiberous stuff. I leave all that in so it ferments faster..last time it took over 2 weeks. I keep my house at 60*-63* so I put my containers by the heating vent. Im having a hard time finding a good place to grow it.

My SCOBY is getting very large. There is no one interested in me dividing her with them. If I’m forced to discard half..should it be the top layers or bottom layers? She is hasn’t been divided in over a year.